Dean Kamen to Tech Community: "We're Not Creating Enough Innovators"

Dean Kamen, the celebrated inventor and entrepreneur and tireless advocate for science and technology, had a clear message for his audience at the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin last week: The tech community needs to work harder to attract more young people to careers in technology and engineering. “We’re not creating enough innovators,” he said.

It’s a message that Kamen has beenrepeating for years, and, it appears, with an increasing sense of urgency. The world’s problems, he said, are getting bigger and harder, and if we don’t engage the next generations to come up with solutions, things are going to “spiral in the wrong direction.” “As professionals, parents, citizens, the tech community has to reach out and be available to kids,” Kamen said, “to show it’s cool” to work in science and technology.

Ray Almgren, a vice president at National Instruments, the Austin-based maker of engineering and instrumentation tools, introduced Kamen at SXSW, saying he’s responsible for numerous innovations (drug delivery systems, the portable dialysis machine, the Segway), but that “his most impactful invention was founding FIRST.”

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is the popular high school robotics competition that Kamen created 25 years ago, and which he modeled after sports events. Every year, teams have to build robots to participate in matches that require them to both collaborate with and compete against other teams. Students learn about engineering principles, leadership, and teamwork. It all culminates with a mega event, the FIRST Championship, which this year takes place at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Mo., 24 to 26 April.

The other projects Kamen mentioned were a water purifying machine and a power generator based on a Stirling engine. DEKA is conducting trials with the water system, called the Slingshot, in schools and communities in Africa and Latin America. The company's Stirling-based system is a rugged electricity generator that can run on a number of fuels. Kamen said two units have been deployed in a village in Bangladesh, where cow dung is used to power them.

But what Kamen really likes to talk about, he said, is FIRST. He described how FIRST went from an experiment, with 20 teams participating in the first competition in 1992, to a global phenomenon that today involves 29,000 schools in 81 countries, 120,000 volunteers who act as mentors for the teams, and 200 corporate sponsors. To date, more than a million kids have participated in FIRST events.

But despite his excitement, Kamen also expressed frustration. He said the tech community deserves an "A+" for improving people’s lives, but in terms of engaging kids, he would give it a "D." He urged SXSW attendees to get involved in FIRST and similar initiatives, as well as promote extracurricular school programs that focus on science and technology. He noted that even a small number of people can have a big impact and that waiting for the government or others to solve the problem is not an option. "That leaves it to us," Kamen said.

“Every kid deserves to see what the world of innovation and tech can do for them, and what they can do for the world.”

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